DEATH-DEALING TORNADO

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 84, 8 April 1936, Page 7

DEATH-DEALING TORNADO

DESTRUCTION IN AMERICA TANGLED WRECKAGE THROUGH SEVERAL STATES TOPS SHEARED OFF STEEL AND BRICK BUILDINGS DEAD TOTAL 300 AND UP TO 2000 INIURED l By Telegraph— Press Association— Received April 7. 111.50 p.m. NEW YOKK, April (?. A tornado, one of the series of storms which for several days has harassed six southern States, to-day struck three cities with great force, leaving behind it many dead. At least 200 already have been identified at Gainesville (Georgia), Tupelo (Mississippi), and Columbia (Tennessee) which were hardest hit, although numerous other towns suffered badly. The storm not only tossed about vehicles and smaller buildmgs, but also sheared off the tops of modern steel and brick structures, cutting a swathe of considerable depth through State utter State and leaving wreckage and dead in a tangled mass. Gainesville alone suffered property damage estimated at five million dollars, ami was reported to be burning. The destruction at Tupelo was enormous and the known dead there are already in excess of 100. Alabama. Arkansas and South Carolina are among other States affected by the storm. A later message states that the known dead now total 243 including 124 at Tupelo and 75 at Gainesville,' The wreckage still makes impossible the determination of all the deaths. The storm did its damage within three minutes at Gainesville, when the streets were crowded with people going to work in the morning. Buildings housing most of the fire-fighting apparatus were demolished, and when the fires broke out all over the wrecked area the city firemen’s only weapon was dynamite. Over a thousand persons were injured at Tupelo, where the tornado struck late last night. The city might have been consumed by fire, as numerous conflagrations occurred immediately. Fortunately, however, a torrential downpour followed, adding to the difficulty of the rescue work but putting out the fires. A section of the city two and a-half miles long by nearly half a ndle wide was wiped out ami 2000 persons are homeless. Soup kitchens, manned by the Civil Conservation Corps, have been established, and supply trains from various larger centres of the State, manned by troops ami carrying physicians and nurses, have arrived. Late to-night the dead totalled 300 and the injured between .1500 and 2000. The damage will exceed 8,000,000 dollars. Freak weather punished many parts of the country to-day. The temperature was .109 at Catarina (Texas), and 15 below at 1 arshall (North Dakota). Snow covered much of the West, while gales pounded the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Further floods occurred along the Ohio River.